Safe Haven
by Johanna93
Summary: Addison and Derek live a fairytale in New York when something happens to make her flee to Seattle. She meets Mark, and they are attracted to each other. But will Addison learn to trust again?
1. Prologue

**Hi**

**This is my first fanfic, tell me what you think. I want lots of reviews and please give me your honest opinion. Remember, this is just a teaser, the first real chapter starts a few months earlier. **

A hospital is a safe haven. Even more so if you work there, because if you work there, you know the building and the staff. The girl hiding in the closet told herself all those things, and more, as she cowered against the back wall, shaking. Outside, she heard slow, heavy footsteps and rapid breathing. He was mumbling to himself or maybe to her as he searched every area slowly and thoroughly. Her only response was pressing closer to the back wall, praying that she would wake up and find that it only had been a bad dream. As the footsteps came closer, a soft whimper escaped her.


	2. Fraying at the Edges

**Chapter 1, I'm begging you to read and review**

It started out as a normal day at work. She walked in her four-inch heels to the hospital a few blocks away from the penthouse in Manhattan. As she entered the lobby, her heels, combined with the Gucci pencil skirt attracted the attention of the few males that had time to linger a couple of moments. After all, a hospital lobby is a busy place.

She flashed a smile that could have melted steel at the security guard, pleased with his stunned reaction. Before she could reach the elevators at the far end of the lobby, a male voice interrupted her.

"Dr Montgomery-Shepherd! I need a consult on a case." This came from one of the new interns, a dark-haired male one that had been giving her quite a bit of attention. She had simply found it endearing, where her husband had been ready to kill the intern in question.

"Dr Blake, this it not a good time," she faced him briefly, flashing an impatient smile, "speak to Dr Marlowe about the consult. I have a lecture to give."

Thankfully the elevator was empty, allowing her to pick up a mirrored compact from her Louis Vuitton bag and adjust her red lipstick. With a smile, she snapped the compact shut, and replaced both that and the lipstick tube in the correct compartments in her bag. Some said that she suffered from an OCD, but Addison knew better. She simply required everything to be in the right place, and she fully believed that this was the reason that she was 30 years old and lived a fairytale. She was a world-renowned neonatal surgeon, married to the best neurosurgeon in the country, if not the world. They were both employed at the best hospital on the east coast, pulled in enormous amounts of money and they were still as much in love as when they first met, five years ago.

When she exited the elevator, Addison went straight to the surgical board and saw that her husband was free from surgery. She continued toward his office, intending to set at lunch date with him, all according to the routine they had shared for as long as they had worked here.

"Addie!" The call came from a pretty, blond doctor reading a chart.

"Hi Em," Addison replied, showing some animation in her eyes for the first time that day. Emma was the only person Addison considered a friend at the hospital. "I didn't know you were working today. Will you come listen to the lecture?"

"Sorry Addie, but since you are lecturing today, I'm stuck doing actual work." She said this with a smile, taking in her friend's appearance. "I've known you for three years, and I still don't understand how you can work in heels. How can you put innocent feet through torture like that every day?"

"No matter how long we know each other, I don't think we ever will agree on footwear. Besides, Derek loves when I wear heels." She smiled slowly, remembering last night.

"Details. Spill. Remember that I am single and sex-deprived." Emma had immediately recognized the look on Addison's face.

"Sorry, I have to hurry up I'll be late. I have to speak to Derek before the lecture"

"And we all know that Addison the Impeccable can't be late. All right, but next time I see you, you have no choice but to share all the dirty details." She sighed and went back to her chart as the rapid click of Addison's heels disappeared down the hallway.

As her routine always had been, she paused momentarily outside Derek's office and adjusted the collar of her crisp red cotton blouse. Her husband appreciated her flawlessness. He was amused by her perfectionism and always respected it. There was never a wet towel on the floor or dishes in the sink. In that way, they made a perfect couple.

She entered the outer office and realized, with a sigh that Derek's secretary was out on some errand. She hated interrupting an important meeting or some confidential conversation just because the secretary wasn't at her desk.

Bracing herself for the faint embarrassment that would come if there indeed was a meeting, she knocked softly. There was no answer, but she thought she heard sounds from the office. Thinking that Derek was simply too focused on his work to hear, she pushed the door open. After all, it had happened before.

The door was wide open, yet she didn't enter the room. She just stood there, unable to comprehend what she saw.


	3. Utopia Falls

**I love everyone who is reading this, because that means someone is reading my story. Please review, I want to know how to improve future chapters and stories.**

If was astonishing how quickly someone's world could collapse. In a heartbeat, lives could be destroyed, hopes and dreams carelessly crushed. Standing in the door to her husband's office, Addison felt the ground shift beneath her feet. Then, suddenly the shock released its grip on her mind and she realized what she was seeing.

On the generous leather couch she had bought to her husband's office, was two tangled bodies. They were half naked, and one of them was her husband. She couldn't put a name on the other one, but she recognized her as one of her husband's interns.

As if a switch had been flicked, Addison snapped back from shock and disbelief to her usual, composed self.

"It appears I am interrupting. Derek, when you are less occupied, I would like to see you in my office. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lecture to give."

Later, she would never know how she managed to get through the lecture and all the small-talk after. It all passed in a blur of motion and colour, without touching her heart, the way these lectures normally did. It was something she used to love, something that confirmed that she was great, loved and admired.

Today her heart remained cold and distant, bleeding from the fresh tear.

She came back to herself once she had gotten rid of the last doctor wanting to question her about surgeries and treatments. She was in a hallway she had walked down countless times before, just a few hundred meters from her office. Everything that had happened to her came crashing down on her shoulders, the weight of her failure immense.

She did something she had never done before. Instead of her rapid, graceful walk, practised to perfection over years, she stepped out of her shoes and ran to her office. As she ran, she did her best to stifle the sobs trying to escape. The doctors and nurses she passed were shocked, they had never seen the dignified Dr Montgomery-Shepherd at a jog, much less at a panicked run.

The man standing outside her office watched her running towards the office door and slamming it shut, without sparing a look for the man. Silently, he thought it was all for the best that she didn't notice him just yet. Soon enough, she would know he was watching.

Addison slammed the door shut behind her and locked the door. For a moment she just stood there, and then she sank to the floor, not bothering to disguise the sobs. She lay in a heap on the floor, crying. She, the famous neonatal surgeon, the one who lived a fairytale, envied by women and desired by men. Betrayed and discarded of. A failure, a woman who couldn't keep her husband faithful. A failure, like her mother had always called her.

Slowly, the sobbing slowed and Addison got up from the floor and did what she always did. The next thing, the logical thing. So she grabbed her emergency make-up bag from her desk and went into her private bathroom. She splashed some cold water on her face and began the tedious procedure of applying fresh makeup. Carefully she disguised every sign of crying, knowing that she would face Derek sooner or later.

With a smile at her reflection, she reapplied the red lipstick. A woman never went face to face with an enemy without the most basic of shields. Confident that she looked as good as she possibly could, she walked back into her office.

It was then she noticed the big envelope on her desk, the only mail her secretary hadn't been able to deal with. Without a change in her expression, she read the letter. Still without a change in expression, she put it down.

"Not now of all times" that was all she was able to think.

"Dr Montgomery-Shepherd", said her secretary through the intercom, "your husband is here to see you."

Addison took a deep breath and answered, "I will see him now Alice, thank you"


	4. Unexpected

She was composed on the outside. Her clothes and makeup was flawless, as always, her face showed no emotion. Only her blue eyes showed any sign of distress. They were filled with storming emotion, ranging from shock and betrayal, to cold rage.

As Derek entered her stylish office, decorated in soft greens and blues, he felt her rage as physical as a punch. She didn't rise to welcome him, giving him one of her ususal absentminded kisses. He realized with a pang of guilt and regret that he missed it.

"Addie, I'm so sorry," he started to say.

"You don't speak unless I ask you to. I speak, I ask the questions." She interrupted him with a cruel, feline smile. "I don't want your apologies. I want to know for how long you have been cheating on me."

"A couple of months" He seemed to deflate as he gave up information he never intended for her to know about.

"Why? Is she the only one? Have there been others?" She seemed so cool, so composed.

"Meredith is the only one. It started out as a friendship, and then I fell in love with her. I'm sorry Addison, but she is just… I fell for her." He spoke with great care, waiting for her eruption. After all, he had known her for five years, and when she was truly mad, she yelled and threw things.

"You're sorry? You're sorry you fell in love with another woman and broke my heart? You're sorry you stole five years of my life? You broke my heart, you filthy son of a bitch!" As she spoke, her voice rose, until she was almost screaming the last sentence.

"Addie, please calm down."

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? You want me to calm down? I am dead calm you cheating bastard!" As she yelled, she rose and walked around her beautiful, antique, gleaming, wooden desk. "Don't you call me Addie, you fucking cheater! You lost that right when you decided to start feeling out your interns in the on-call room!

"Addison, please. Tell me how we can make this right." He spoke quietly, pleading with her, trying to make her see reason.

She turned her back at him without saying a word. Slowly, she walked to the bookshelf with medical books. She admired her perfect mails as she ran a hand down a heavy medical dictionary. Thoughtfully, she moved the hand to a heavy porcelain vase, holding pale pink roses.

Derek barely dared to breath, praying that her eruption was over and they could discuss things rationally. After all he needed her rational, he needed her to see that he couldn't have a divorce if he wanted to make Chief of Surgery. If he only could get her to see reason, realize that the advantages of being the wife of the Chief of Surgery were large enough that she could accept his mistress. He and Meredith had agreed on this as the best solution during Addison's lecture.

Deep in his own thoughts, Derek only avoided the heavy medical dictionary with a hares breath, and only because her aim was slightly off.

"You are going to give me a divorce, on my terms, and you will GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Addison yelled this, as Derek ran towards the office door. Just before he got the door open and disappeared, she managed to heave the vase in his direction. It hit with a satisfying crash, right between the shoulder blades, soaking his navy scrubs.

She remained there, in the centre of the room breathing heavily, as the door closed. As feline smile spread slowly over her face as she returned to her desk. She picked up the letter and thought again. Maybe it was the best of times.

As she picked up the phone to dial the number given to her, her eyes fell on the shards of the vase near the door. She would have to get someone to clean that up. Men always underestimated her aim. But she never missed.


	5. A Second Chance

**Sorry that it is such a short update, but think of it more as a transition chapter. Read and review!!!! **

With a sigh Addison looked around in her apartment. She had spent three months packing everything she wanted from the New York apartment. This was one of the conditions in the divorce. From the outside, it had appeared to be a friendly one, but inside lawyer's offices, both words and heavier things had flown.

In the end, Addison had gotten what she wanted. A quiet divorce, a nice lump sum of money and everything she wanted from the New York apartment. She had also gotten away from the gossip at the hospital by handing in her resignation the very day she learned about Derek's affair. The three months left on her contract were taken out as vacation and used for the advanced process of moving from one coast to another.

Now, as she stood in her apartment, Addison looked at the walls that were painted the exact shades she wanted, the floors oak floors and the perfect furnishing. Everything looked exactly the way she wanted it. She wouldn't accept less, of course, she thought as she walked in to the spare bedroom that had been remade to a walk-in closet. All of her clothes had been organized according to season, occasion and colour.

She turned to the wall that was designated to her passion. All her shoes sat there, on tailor-made racks. Very few of them had less than three-inch heels. Every time she felt sad, or depressed she went shopping for shoes. This had resulted in more shoes than she could count, and lately she had developed her passion to involve earrings as well. They were easier to store.

Her apartment was flawless. This pleased Addison, which is why she was shocked when she sank to the floor and started crying, as if her heart had been broken again. Here she was, hiding out in a hole on the west coast; trying to forget the latest news she had received from New York. Trying to forget that her own mother had sent the newspaper-clipping announcing the marriage between Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey. Less than one month after the divorce was final.

After re-applying her makeup, a habit she had developed since the divorce, she decided that earring-therapy just wouldn't do the trick today. She needed some serious shoe-shopping. One of the things she had found out about Seattle before moving was where you went to find Manolo Blahnik shoes.

Two hours later, a satisfied Addison sat at a café, drinking a latte and thinking about the next day. All she really knew about Seattle Grace hospital was that her best friend from med school worked there. She smiled as she thought of Isobel Stevens. They hadn't met in several years, but were both equally successful in their chosen field. To bad only that it was the same field. Two world-class neonatal surgeons at one hospital was bound to create some friction.

With a sigh, she finished her latte and smiled at the slightly familiar-looking man sitting at a table drinking an espresso. As she got up, she realized that shoe-therapy was definitely a good thing. She had stopped thinking of Seattle as a hiding-hole and more as a second chance. Even though it was a second chance with a lot of raining.

Little did she know that the man at the café thought of her for a long, long time after her departure. Thought that it was almost time now. Soon she would know who he was.

**Now, let the real story begin! She has reached Seattle and gotten rid of Derek. Tomorrow is the first day at Seattle Grace, and i promise that some sparks will fly, both from temper and romance. As we have learned, Addison has quite som temperament!**

**Love, Johanna**


	6. Introductions

Just like she had always done in New York, Addison walked to work. However, this time when she walked to work, she was riddled with nerves. Just outside the building, she stopped and smoothed her black, pin-striped pants. She picked and invisible hair from the slate grey jacket and adjusted the collar of her white shirt. Realizing that she was obsessing over her appearance, something she had never done before, she straightened her back and entered the lobby.

Ignoring the looks she attracted, she went straight to the information desk. The perky brunette manning the desk was more that happy to direct her to the office of the Chief of Surgery. Addison pressed the button for the elevator and looked around at the busy lobby. What she did not see was the two male doctors looking down at her from the first floor balcony.

"She has to be related to a patient" came from the darker of the two.

"Mhmm" the other doctor was to busy admiring the way she moved on those high, skinny heels of hers. When she spoke to Ashley at the information desk, he noticed her very nice butt.

"You know, I've always thought redheads have something extra." The first doctor was not the least discouraged by his friend's lack of response.

When Addison reached the surgical floor, she took a left and counted to four doors on her left. The fourth one had a name plate with the text "Richard Webber, Chief of Surgery" on it. She stood there for a moment, fighting the urge to check her makeup again, reminding herself that she checked it in the elevator. Taking a deep breath, she entered the outer office.

"Good morning, may I help you?" The pretty, dark woman at the desk asked this with a smile.

"Yes, I have an appointment with Dr Webber. I am Dr Addison Montgomery." The fact that everyone was all nice and smiley was giving her the jitters.

"Of course, he is expecting you."

This made Addison even more nervous beneath the composed surface. The meeting had been booked for nine o'clock. She was barely eight fifty, but he was already expecting her. She prayed that she had written down the time correctly. Being late was one of the things she hated most.

Despite her nerves, the meeting went perfectly fine. Addison signed a contract that made her the head of neonatal surgery. Dr Webber was perfectly polite to her during the first forty-five minutes or so of the meeting. Then he dropped the bomb.

"Oh, and Addison, I took the liberty of calling a meeting with all the other specialists and heads of departments. I want you to introduce yourself to them." This line was delivered straight out of the blue, just as the meeting was coming to an end.

Addison felt her heart sink. A meeting with Isobel Stevens was not what she had in mind for her first day at work. A meeting with Isobel Stevens was in fact something she would have liked to postpone for as long as possible. She knew that she hadn't forgotten what happened the last time the saw each other and she doubted Isobel had forgotten.

Still chatting about how he hoped that Addison would help improve the hospital, Dr Webber rose and guided her towards a conference room. Without knocking, he opened the door and the twenty or so people inside went dead quiet.

Addison thought she could physically feel their gaze on her. Without any unnecessary talking, Dr Webber introduced her, and then started to introduce the rest in the room. However, only a few names and faces stayed with her.

"Dr Isobel Stevens, the best neonatal surgeon on your team." Isobel was glaring at her with such hate in her eyes, Addison was surprised no one else seemed to notice.

"Dr Alex Karev, specialized in plastics." He was the only man she had ever seen who lived up to the epitaph tall, dark and handsome. Unfortunately, he only gave her a short nod before going back to staring at Isobel with an adoring look in his eyes.

"Dr Mark Sloan, head of plastics." Now here was a different man. He was fairer than Karev, and also appeared to be taller. The word handsome seemed to tame for him. The only word that Addison found applicable was hot. To make things better, his intense, unreadable gaze was focused on her face, not 40 cm below.

"Dr Christina Yang, head of cardiothoracic surgery." She had Asian features and looked to be around Addison's age, unusually young for a department head. Still, a majority of the surgeons in the room were young. The also had a reputation for being the best in their fields.

When the introductions were over, Dr Webber gave no opportunities for questions and simply left the room with Addison at his heels. This time they stopped at her office.

"I have given you all information you need. Barring an emergency, you don't have to work today, you can simply get acquainted with the hospital." With these words he left her standing in her empty office.


End file.
